IMG MGMT: FOSSILS & MINERALS – Teleportation

[Editors Note: IMG MGMT is an artist essay series highlighting the diversity of curatorial processes within the art making practice. Today’s invited artist Kari Altmann has an upcoming show at netmaresnetdreams.net and is participating in the Deitch Parade with friends in September. She maintains the websites karialtmann.com & blackmoth.org. You can also see more of her collections at blackmoth.info ]

A two-part excerpt from one of my largest collections of found youtubes.

In my netdigs, I definitely located a certain species in their natural habitats.

Like fossils the first youtubes exist as four dimensional space “prints” that explain what happened to a particular creature, and how it disappeared.

In this instance the materials that created the print were actually man made. The webcam, the stock special effects & editing software, the computer, etc. etc. And yet they weren’t actually made by these men themselves, but by a higher power, which these people found and resourcefully put to their own uses.

Although most of these guys are probably still alive and haven’t actually teleported anywhere, the fact remains that they still probably spend a ton of time in that “youcube” of their room, on the computer. They have teleported into a virtual existence and therefore are like fossils themselves, trapped in a deadspace by a world of materials they created around them. All that lives on is this “print.”

For me these are completely satisfying to watch and collect, as I imagine them as fossils both now and in the future, if a civilization had to look back and try to figure out what happened to this youtube species. And in the end, will these digital minerals (special effects of light and energy) be all that’s left?

In my netdigs, I definitely located a certain species in their natural habitats.

Like fossils the first youtubes exist as four dimensional space “prints” that explain what happened to a particular creature, and how it disappeared.

In this instance the materials that created the print were actually man made. The webcam, the stock special effects & editing software, the computer, etc. etc. And yet they weren’t actually made by these men themselves, but by a higher power, which these people found and resourcefully put to their own uses.

Although most of these guys are probably still alive and haven’t actually teleported anywhere, the fact remains that they still probably spend a ton of time in that “youcube” of their room, on the computer. They have teleported into a virtual existence and therefore are like fossils themselves, trapped in a deadspace by a world of materials they created around them. All that lives on is this “print.”

For me these are completely satisfying to watch and collect, as I imagine them as fossils both now and in the future, if a civilization had to look back and try to figure out what happened to this youtube species. And in the end, will these digital minerals (special effects of light and energy) be all that’s left?

In my netdigs, I definitely located a certain species in their natural habitats.

Like fossils the first youtubes exist as four dimensional space “prints” that explain what happened to a particular creature, and how it disappeared.

In this instance the materials that created the print were actually man made. The webcam, the stock special effects & editing software, the computer, etc. etc. And yet they weren’t actually made by these men themselves, but by a higher power, which these people found and resourcefully put to their own uses.

Although most of these guys are probably still alive and haven’t actually teleported anywhere, the fact remains that they still probably spend a ton of time in that “youcube” of their room, on the computer. They have teleported into a virtual existence and therefore are like fossils themselves, trapped in a deadspace by a world of materials they created around them. All that lives on is this “print.”

For me these are completely satisfying to watch and collect, as I imagine them as fossils both now and in the future, if a civilization had to look back and try to figure out what happened to this youtube species. And in the end, will these digital minerals (special effects of light and energy) be all that’s left?

I also get sadistic (but sympathetic) pleasure out of watching this group of people who (inferredly or iconically) place way too much value on media/net spectacle be eradicated.
The comments for some of these videos touch on it:

Although the rest of the comments are similar members of this tribe congratulating eachother or needlessly critiquing how well this mimics “actual teleportation”-meaning the teleportation from a specific show or movie- and suggesting ways to make it better (by spending more hours in front of the computer.)

The raw minerals of spectacle that are left are then realized to have a sort of unmanageable and seductive power, all the while just doing what they were meant to do, existing in their natural form. I don’t want to use this term but in talking this over with a friend we realized they become sort of Pokemon-cute, and deadly. But the power they exude is the same found in any other material in nature.

I think this is another reason this collection belongs together, because these are all “video & effects” amateurs, just fanatics who are trying to grapple with what these visual materials can really do, and at the same time what they can do with them. They put forth extremely minimal, cut and dry efforts in order to “test” themselves against the software. It’s as if they are already admitting defeat.

I also get sadistic (but sympathetic) pleasure out of watching this group of people who (inferredly or iconically) place way too much value on media/net spectacle be eradicated.
The comments for some of these videos touch on it:

Although the rest of the comments are similar members of this tribe congratulating eachother or needlessly critiquing how well this mimics “actual teleportation”-meaning the teleportation from a specific show or movie- and suggesting ways to make it better (by spending more hours in front of the computer.)

The raw minerals of spectacle that are left are then realized to have a sort of unmanageable and seductive power, all the while just doing what they were meant to do, existing in their natural form. I don’t want to use this term but in talking this over with a friend we realized they become sort of Pokemon-cute, and deadly. But the power they exude is the same found in any other material in nature.

I think this is another reason this collection belongs together, because these are all “video & effects” amateurs, just fanatics who are trying to grapple with what these visual materials can really do, and at the same time what they can do with them. They put forth extremely minimal, cut and dry efforts in order to “test” themselves against the software. It’s as if they are already admitting defeat.

I also get sadistic (but sympathetic) pleasure out of watching this group of people who (inferredly or iconically) place way too much value on media/net spectacle be eradicated.
The comments for some of these videos touch on it:

Although the rest of the comments are similar members of this tribe congratulating eachother or needlessly critiquing how well this mimics “actual teleportation”-meaning the teleportation from a specific show or movie- and suggesting ways to make it better (by spending more hours in front of the computer.)

The raw minerals of spectacle that are left are then realized to have a sort of unmanageable and seductive power, all the while just doing what they were meant to do, existing in their natural form. I don’t want to use this term but in talking this over with a friend we realized they become sort of Pokemon-cute, and deadly. But the power they exude is the same found in any other material in nature.

I think this is another reason this collection belongs together, because these are all “video & effects” amateurs, just fanatics who are trying to grapple with what these visual materials can really do, and at the same time what they can do with them. They put forth extremely minimal, cut and dry efforts in order to “test” themselves against the software. It’s as if they are already admitting defeat.

I also get sadistic (but sympathetic) pleasure out of watching this group of people who (inferredly or iconically) place way too much value on media/net spectacle be eradicated.
The comments for some of these videos touch on it:

Although the rest of the comments are similar members of this tribe congratulating eachother or needlessly critiquing how well this mimics “actual teleportation”-meaning the teleportation from a specific show or movie- and suggesting ways to make it better (by spending more hours in front of the computer.)

The raw minerals of spectacle that are left are then realized to have a sort of unmanageable and seductive power, all the while just doing what they were meant to do, existing in their natural form. I don’t want to use this term but in talking this over with a friend we realized they become sort of Pokemon-cute, and deadly. But the power they exude is the same found in any other material in nature.

I think this is another reason this collection belongs together, because these are all “video & effects” amateurs, just fanatics who are trying to grapple with what these visual materials can really do, and at the same time what they can do with them. They put forth extremely minimal, cut and dry efforts in order to “test” themselves against the software. It’s as if they are already admitting defeat.

While I’m a little embarrassed, you’ve come across some very intriguing phenomenology here, and I honestly didn’t think about it very deeply until I saw them all grouped together.

However, I object to your notion that I or any of us have admitted defeat. In order to subvert the established order, oftentimes you have to use the very tools it has given you.

Spectacle is a weapon, and it can be used for good and evil. While I can understand that some might fear this is us doing their dirty work for them, I just have to put my faith in the power of the people because what we’re up against scares the shit out of me.

While I’m a little embarrassed, you’ve come across some very intriguing phenomenology here, and I honestly didn’t think about it very deeply until I saw them all grouped together.

However, I object to your notion that I or any of us have admitted defeat. In order to subvert the established order, oftentimes you have to use the very tools it has given you.

Spectacle is a weapon, and it can be used for good and evil. While I can understand that some might fear this is us doing their dirty work for them, I just have to put my faith in the power of the people because what we’re up against scares the shit out of me.

While I’m a little embarrassed, you’ve come across some very intriguing phenomenology here, and I honestly didn’t think about it very deeply until I saw them all grouped together.

However, I object to your notion that I or any of us have admitted defeat. In order to subvert the established order, oftentimes you have to use the very tools it has given you.

Spectacle is a weapon, and it can be used for good and evil. While I can understand that some might fear this is us doing their dirty work for them, I just have to put my faith in the power of the people because what we’re up against scares the shit out of me.